Documenting the refugee exodus

I came across this blog post, titled “Passing through – memories from the Western Balkan route”. For a long time, I have been thinking that the effort of large numbers of refugees to reach Europe (I dislike the term “refugee crisis”), and Europe’s response to it, is not just an important current issue; it will prove to be an issue of historical importance, one of the most important issues to study when we will be looking back at the first decades of the 21st century.

In that respect, I think that it is important to document the trajectories of the refugees, the official response of national and international authorities, and different initiatives aiming to help refugees meet their most vital needs where official authorities fail (for example, squats housing refugees in Athens, Greece), or initiatives aiming to help them gain some money and autonomy (ex. educational and hand-craft initiatives in Turkey and Greece) or to help them integrate (ex. neighbourhood initiatives in Amsterdam).